A ‘veteran’ trolling for votes–or something–at the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco

You cannot be happy if you’ve cast your lot with Donald Trump, because this has been a bad week for his candidacy.

First, he lost the debate to Hillary Clinton before a Super Bowl size television audience–even the experts Fox News lined up after the debate said he sucked. His supporters were reduced to citing several notoriously unreliable Internet polls to claim he won.

In a process that continues to repeat itself, Trump then got bogged down in a debate over his treatment of a former Miss Universe–was he justified in calling her Miss Piggy?–instead of taking the battle to Clinton. But you know Trump–he refuses to let any criticism of his personal conduct go unchallenged.

He’s since been thrown some more red meat that’s guaranteed to keep him off course: Forbes magazine now estimates that his fortune has declined by $800 million in the last year, primarily because his New York real estate is worth less.

This is the latest battle in a guerrilla war that’s been going on for decades. When the magazine puts together its annual Forbes 400 list of wealthiest people, most of those on the list want nothing to do with the magazine’s researchers.

But Trump actually tried to convince them a couple of years ago that he was worth more than the magazine claimed; The Donald was not amused when the magazine refused to budge from its number. You can bet this latest slight won’t go unchallenged.

Now comes a report that Trump tried to circumvent the economic boycott of Cuba several years ago in an effort to make a buck. If the story is true, his Cuban-American supporters in the Sunshine State won’t be happy, and Florida is a state he has to have to win the election.

As it is, he may run out of money before he runs out of rope. The Trump campaign has said it will spend $140 million on television advertising between now and election day, but he apparently doesn’t have the cash. However, he has been buying a lot of ads at Breitbart News.

All of this is good news for Hillary. Trump’s poor performance in the debate failed to close any of the ground between him and the leader, a task that will be more difficult as we get closer to election day and Clinton’s superior get out the vote operation in battle ground states starts to have an impact.

But that doesn’t mean she has the election in the bag–Hillary has shown the ability in the past to shoot herself in the foot. But you have to like her chances when Trump’s supporters are reduced to praying for an October surprise.